(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a data transmission apparatus (e.g., a print server) for supporting printing of image data on-site or at a site remote from the office. The present invention also relates to an image data communication system in which a data transmission apparatus, a portable terminal device capable of data transmission and reception with the help of a portable telephone, PHS phone or the like, and a printer, are connected to a network.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
The recent development and spread of the internet has made possible exchange of image data etc., via electric mail. As examples of terminal devices, portable terminal devices that can deal with diverse usage environments have been developed. Under such circumstances, the size of the display device provided in such a terminal device is limited to being approximately proportional to the size of the terminal device.
For example, a portable notebook computer may have a relatively large display device and have high enough capacities (of memory and image processing) for displaying image data.
On the contrary, portability-oriented, hand-held information devices such as electronic notebooks etc., use relatively small display devices taking into account their compactness and thinness, and have a simple configuration, and simple capability of processing image information.
Further, with the development in the field of data transmission, not only text data (character data) can be handled as e-mail, but also image documents scanned as electronic data by internet fax, network scanners, or the like can become transmitted as e-mail.
Under these circumstances, there often occur many instances where data needs to be printed on-site. At present, though mobile printing and other technologies are put into practice, it is very difficult for mobile printing to handle data if that data is bulky.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Hei 10 No. 63601 discloses a data printing system for printing data from a site away from the user's office, wherein a print request with printing data is transmitted to the user's office from on-site, and the user is able to immediately obtain printouts with a simple operation when the user returns to the office.
This technology disclosed in the above publication, however, only provides printing at the office, so that it is impossible for the user to obtain the printouts of the data on-site. Further, since the system for the technology disclosed in the above publication needs a dedicated office server, it is not a system which can be openly accessed by any user.
There are businesses that provide printing services from electronic data. However, a person who is a stranger without good knowledge of a certain locale and who does not have information as to the nearby printing service shop that can process their data to be printed will have difficulty in locating such a shop and performing the printing.